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A Rachman-style landlord has decided to make homeless and evict over 100 of his tenants during the week of last Christmas from his rundown apartment building located in Nicosia. He has given the occupants eight-days notice to vacate the premises …

Trump’s surrender to the neoconservatives makes it impossible for an informed person to support him. He has signed off on the coup against democracy in Venezuela, and he has placed all life at risk by pulling out of the INF …

The definition of the term “terrorism” has been deliberately left undefined by the Western powers to use it as a catch-all pretext to justify their interventionist policy in the energy-rich Islamic countries. Depending on context, “terrorism” can mean two markedly …

Many have dismissed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s Asia tour to Pakistan, India, and China as nothing more than a post-Khashoggi photo-op to shore up international support, but it’s actually about much more than that because of its …

President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua has twice been elected to the presidency and has been a popular leader in Nicaragua since 1979. The neoconservative war criminal, John Bolton, picked by President Trump to run US foreign policy, has declared …

He could not stay away, and few could blame him. Such political tendencies are nerves, conditions, diseases: eventually, we have to succumb to them. Bernie Sanders has announced his intention to run for the White House in 2020. It was …

There has been considerable speculation in recent months concerning reasons why the S-300 air defense systems supplied to the Syrian Arab Army by the Russian Federation have yet to fire a shot in anger at Israeli aircraft encroaching on its …

These days, the trade “war” between the Trump administration and China is regularly in the headlines and, sometimes, so are the bases the Chinese are building in the South China Sea, the ships the U.S. Navy …

Last month, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio finally launched his eagerly anticipated Fair Fares program offering half-price transit fares for low-income New Yorkers — but the early reviews were decidedly mixed.

In the celebration of the International Mother Language Day this Thursday, the UN draws attention to the alarming rate at which languages are disappearing and calls for more action to counteract this trend.

Many Canadians are familiar with the Monroe Doctrine. First issued by the United States in 1823, it warned European powers against renewed colonization of the Western Hemisphere. Presented as anti-imperialist, the Monroe Doctrine was later used to justify US interference …

Travelling with Hugo Chavez, I soon understood the threat of Venezuela. At a farming co-operative in Lara state, people waited patiently and with good humour in the heat. Jugs of water and melon juice were passed around. A guitar was …

After Chávez’ death in 2013 Maduro was elected president of Venezuela. Since then the US has resolutely been heading for a regime change. The strategy to achieve this has run through several stages. Now we have come to the …

The Venezuela coup attempt is not going well at all and Washington’s global allies may soon regret rushing to recognise Juan Guaido as the legitimate interim president of Venezuela, French journalist and geopolitical analyst Gilbert Mercier told Sputnik.

“Quantitative easing” was supposed to be an emergency measure. The Federal Reserve “eased” shrinkage in the money supply due to the 2008-09 credit crisis by pumping out trillions of dollars in new bank reserves. After the crisis, the presumption was …

A Japanese space probe named after a falcon, Hayabusa 2, touched down on an asteroid more than 300 million km from Earth on Friday.

Japanese space agency said the probe is on a mission to seek clues about the origins of life.

“Today, humanity’s hand has reached a new asteroid. JAXA’s space probe Hayabusa 2 has landed on asteroid Ryugu, and has conducted an operation to collect particles from Ryugu”, said Hayabusa 2 project manager, Yuichi Tsuda.

An initial attempt was delayed in October because it was difficult to pick a landing spot on the asteroid’s rocky surface, just 3,000 feet in diameter.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said Hayabusa 2 fired a small projectile into the surface of Ryugu to collect particles. Scientists hope the spacecraft will bring the particles back to Earth for analysis.

The probe is the second Japanese spacecraft to land on an asteroid after Hayabusa touched down on a near-Earth asteroid named Itokawa in 2005.

It was the first to bring asteroid dust back to Earth, although not as much as hoped.

In the looming weekend (February 23 – 24,) the eyes of the world will be on West Africa as two ‘big boys’ in democracy march to the polls to elect presidents.

Elections have become routine across much of Africa where leaders have often subjected themselves to the electoral process.

Specifically in West Africa, the last few years have seen commendable strides in The Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Benin, where power has successfully changed hands.

The case of Africa’s most populous nation

Nigerians will have the option of reelecting incumbent Muhammadu Buahri for a second and final term or finally give a a former vice-president Atiku Abubakar the opportunity to become president after a number of attempts.

This is the sixth vote since a return to civilian rule in 1999. As Africa’s most populous nation, over 84 million people registered to vote according to Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

A recent update indicated that over 72 million people had collected their Permanent Voters Cards, PVCs, and all things being equal should be able to cast their ballots when polls open on Saturday, February 23.

There is a crowded playing field of over seventy candidates for the vote originally scheduled for February 16 but pushed by a week with INEC citing challenges to do with logistics transportation across the vast expanse of the 36 states.

Campaigning officially ended on February 22 according to electoral laws – i.e. 24 hours to the opening of polls. Security has been a top issue with a presidential order for ballot snatchers to be dealt with ruthlessly.

In the end, permutations indicate that it will be a straight win for either of the two main candidates. A run off could result and or the courts could be petitioned by an aggrieved party, voters will then prepare to return to vote for governors and lawmakers in March.

Over in Africa’s most stable democracy

Over in Senegal, the numbers are dwarfed in comparison to Nigeria. About six and half million people are registered to vote with five candidates in the race for the seat of president.

Like in Nigeria, the incumbent is seeking re-election for a final term in office. Macky Sall who has been in office since 2012 is seeking a five-year mandate extension in one of Africa’s most stable democracies.

Senegal located in the far west of the region has not experienced a disruption of their political system since independence from France in 1960.

From the era of first president Leopold Sedar Senghor through to Sall’s mandate. Senegal has had four presidents in Senghor, his successor Abdou Diouf and Abdoulaye Wade, the first opposition candidate to defeat an incumbent. Sall is the fourth president after beating Wade in 2012.

Incidentally, a 2016 referendum slashed the presidential term from seven-years to five years. The new tenure will kick off with whoever wins the February 24 polls.

Sall does not have an out and out challenger with critics holding that he had locked out two main aspirants – Karim Wade and Khalifah Sall – both men were disqualified over corruption convictions.

In both cases, all is set according to authorities and the players, the voters, the observers, the media and political watchers await the period during and after the polls.